‘Puppy’ Typhoon Lashes Southern Taiwan, One Dead

AFP/APP

Taiwan: Typhoon Koinu brushed past southern Taiwan, killing one person and injuring 304 on Thursday.

It lashed the island with the strongest winds it has ever recorded, causing localized damage and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes.

Koinu, which means ‘puppy’ in Japanese, made landfall on the island’s southernmost Cape Eluanbi Thursday morning and was weakening as it moved into the Taiwan Strait by 3 p.m. (0700 GMT), informed Central Weather Administration (CWA).

Authorities said that an 84-year-old woman died in her home in western Taichung City after she was injured by glass shattered due to the gales.

Overnight, the eastern volcanic islet of Orchid Island – home to 5,000 people, mostly fishermen and farmers – experienced wind gusts equivalent to 342.72 kilometres per hour (212 mph) as Koinu moved west towards Taiwan’s southern tip, stated CWA.

A forecaster told that the maximum wind gusts of 95.2 meters per second measured in Orchid Island last night are a new record in Taiwan in 126 years.

Around 2,400 homes on Orchid Island were without power, while the classrooms of an elementary school were damaged by the powerful gales, reported local media.

Authorities closed schools and offices on Thursday in anticipation of Koinu’s impact.

The typhoon affected the key southern port city, Kaohsiung, while the island’s capital and home to financial markets, Taipei, was marked safe and operated as normal.

Taiwan experiences frequent tropical storms from May to November. Experts say climate change has made the paths of tropical storms harder to forecast while increasing their intensity, leading to heavy rains, flash floods and strong gusts.